I have to agree here. It seems most of the criticism of AM is based on the premises of 1) starting with crappy content and 2) auto-spinning it.

If you start with GREAT content, and hand-spin it... then what? Is that really so bad?

The challenge I face with my current clients, as well as my own new business, is that there's no base to build on. We can write all the great content in the world, but we have to get some people there to see it. How do we do that? It's NOT going to get ranked on its own simply because it's good content. The AM techniques seem like a good way to get the content in front of more people and give it a fighting chance in the search engines.

What else would you suggest for getting visibility for your quality content for a brand new business/site?